Picking up the pieces
by ArticSoul
Summary: Obito should've died on that mission but instead he was saved. But he could see the brokenness in her eyes. Can he and the Hidden Leaf convince her to come to their village? And maybe start picking up the pieces of her shattered heart.


**Very tired, had this idea in head for while needed to get it out will update questionable woman next this based on few other stories (can't remember too tired). Back in college :D**

Obito was dying and knew it. Actually the fact that he wasn't dead already surprised him, considering that half of his body was covered in rocks. He could hear the boulders falling around him making the ground quake as the cave fell apart. He could feel the blood seeping through his clothes, he wondered what would kill him, the blood loss, the lack of oxygen due to his collapsed lung or another rock coming down and finishing what its brothers started. At least he went down saving a comrade something every Leaf shinobi aspired to. Trying to ignore the sounds of his life crumbling around him he thought about what he'd miss the most. Bugging Bakashi was always fun hopefully now he would get that stick out of his ass. Minato and Kushina were like family to him, he was going to miss the moment when Minato would finally propose to her. Finally Rin, God he was going to miss everything about her, from her perfect smile to the wonderful way her hair swayed in the wind. Would Kakashi finally open his eyes to Rin's feelings? There was so much more that he wouldn't ever be able to see "I don't wanna die." It came out as a pitiful whisper.

"Well today is your lucky day." Despite how quiet the voice was it still carried over the noise. What the hell, who else was down here and why? The voice sounded feminine and older, was she also trapped with him? He felt a foot nudge him and despite the small amount of force applied to his ribcage he was unable to hold a grunt of pain that escaped his mouth. "Oh my you look pretty messed up. Well it's no time to be lying around" She giggled at her own joke. "Time to get you out of here." He could feel the pressure being relieved from his side and that was his last conscious thought.

When next he awoke the smell of oak assaulted his nose, opening his eyes seeing the first rays of dawn peek through the widow. Looking around the room it gave off a civilian feel. Most shinobis' room were pretty bare except some of their most treasured possessions, this had dull gray curtains and bright orange bedspread, God the whole bed was orange. The bedroom also appeared to serve as a library based on the book shelves which appeared to be sparsely filled. A small nightstand with a lamp sitting on it, the door on the right side of the room. Attempting to sit up pain coursed through his body, gritting his teeth attempting to stifle the grunt of pain. Looking down at his body stitches riddled his body along with a cast covering his whole midsection he could feel an eyepatch covering his empty socket. Hearing the door open he swung around and forgetting about his injuries reached for his weapons pounch. A scream of pain erupted from his throat. Waiting for the waves of agony to abate felt like hours but in reality was probably no more than five minutes.

"Jeez you're an idiot, aren't you?" Slowly tilting his head to the side a child no older than six entered his line of sight. They appeared to be a girl shoulder length hair with a color reminiscent of his jerk teammate. Three scars or whisker marks rested on each cheek, eyes piercing blue like his teacher's. She wore an orange sundress with bright yellow flowers hand stitched on. "You've been out for a week, mum found you and patched you up and brought you back to our house. I'm supposed to give you painkillers when you get up honestly why would even try to reach for your weapons." Walking towards him she held out a glass of water and two white tablets seeing him eye her warily she huffed angrily "Do you not know how grab things idiot?!"

While Obito was used to being called idiot by Kakashi it was different when a six year old wearing orange that rivaled the brightness and intensity of the sun well that was another story "I know how to hold things shortstack!" Slowly reaching for the pills he put them in his mouth and swallowed them with some water. He could feel the pain receding and his mind getting fuzzy "Thanksh" the words came out slurred, as his eyes started drooping he saw a small smile flicker across the girls face.

When next he awoke learning from before, he slowly tested his range of motion which had greatly improved since last he woke. Once again not long after he awoke the girl came back in this time holding a tray with a bowl of steaming soup on it. She came up and placed it on his lap it appeared to be cabbage soup, grabbing the spoon he scooped a bite bringing it to his mouth ignoring the shaking in his hands took a bite. Bland clearly the disappointment in his stomach showed on his face "It's all we've got be grateful." She bit out clearly defensive about the food.

After muttering a quick 'thank you' he ate the rest of the soup after finishing the bowl he put it back on the tray. An awkward silence settled over the two "So can you tell me where I am?" Obito asked.

"No" It was a curt reply.

Obito's shinobi instincts started to kick in something seemed off about the situation he knew he was in no condition to fight nor did he wish to attack a small child. "Why not?" His tone more guarded this time.

"Cause ya might tell others about us." Obito was surprised it by the tone it was accusatory like he would do something wrong. "Mum and I have been hiding for a long time and now she brings you home like some sick animal and you're a shinobi which means your comrades will be looking for ya." She glared at him like it was his fault.

"Saki it's time for dinner." A feminine voice rang through the doorway.

The newly identified Saki turned her head to face the doorway "Coming mother" she turned to leave and said "I'm surprised the drugs haven't kicked in yet." Obito appeared to be shocked that he was drugged without him knowing. Before he could think about it too much the drugs once again started making his head feel fuzzy and sleep took him in its embrace once more.

The next time he awoke he felt much better his limbs almost having a full range of movement but every muscle felt stiff. Throwing the covers off his body he was surprised. One side was perfectly healthy while the other was wrinkled, scarred, just disgusting. He wanted to hurl, while he wasn't usually that petty when it came to looks he had never seen anything so large and graphic, it looked like, like a cave collapsed on top of him. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed he put his feet on the floor and took his first steps in at least two weeks. Or at least that was the plan, his legs felt like jelly and had similar properties to it. Knees hitting the floor along with is hands whose fingers were splayed in an attempt to catch his falling body splinters digging into his skin. The sound of the body hitting the floor and the noise of pain seemed to alert the people downstairs. He could hear the thumps of feet hitting the stairs and the door opening Suki entered along with a much older woman.

At least that's what it looked like at first glance gray hair, not natural but aged fell to just past her shoulders covering one eye the other held the same shade of blue as Suki. Her face looked much older with the slight wrinkles around her eyes, her smaller frame was covered by black robes once she reached the boy she knelt and picked up his hands. Looking at this woman whom most likely saved him he could she three whisker marks like Suki however they were much more pronounced giving her a slightly feral look. Despite her older appearance he was surprised by how smooth her hands were, must have been some cream that was all the rage with women these days. "Oh my your hands are messed up lets get those splinters out."

Suki went over and slung the boys arm over her shoulders from there she helped him walk to the bathroom looking around he could she signs of poverty, a cold draft coming from the cracks in the wall, paint chipping on both sides of the wall. It stunned Obito while there was economic divide within the Leaf everyone had a decent house, most major shinobi villages did. Which made it obvious that they weren't in any of the Hidden villages. That made sense though when considering that they were trying to hide, but why? It was only an old woman and her granddaughter while he wasn't that much of a sensor neither of them had that high of chakra levels. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize that they were done healing him until someone gently slapped his face. Eyes refocusing he saw that they were in the bathroom both of his hands stinging slightly and the woman looking at him with concern in her eyes. "Boy are you okay?"

Flexing his hands and feeling no splinters replied "Yes ma'am I'm doing much now thanks to you" that statement was meant for so much more than just the splinters. Seemingly understanding the hidden meaning of the words she gave a small smile.

"Well young man it's a pleasure to finally meet you quite battered when I came across you." A small frown marred her face at the thought. "I'm honestly surprised that you're awake this early considering you're not an Uzumaki or Senju."

Obito stiffened at the mention of shinobi clans many were after the the Sharingan was she planning on selling him to another village. The next words were blurted out with no thought "Are you going to sell me?" The lady who had started washing her hands whipped around to face the boy her face unreadable. After a few tense moments she turned back to the sink and resumed washing her hands.

"Boy if I wanted to sell you would I have healed you? Why are you walking free and not locked you up and take some samples? Why would I let my child near you? I know we're trained to expect the worse but please never accuse me of something so heinous again. Anyways it's time for you to be washed so please get in the tub." She motioned to the worn tub sitting against the stained glass window. Now that Obito thought about something did smell lifting his arm up he took a slight whiff. Recoiling from the rank oder he agreed with her, he did need a shower. He looked at the two women expectantly both of them looking back. After a few awkward seconds passed the made a slight motion to the door. Suddenly the woman got the reference clapping her hands together "Oh sorry about that I forgot you were conscious, don't take a shower it wastes too much water just scrub yourself down then do a quick rinse." With that she scooted the girl out and left Obito to his thoughts. After the door closed Obito started the process of bathing himself, only for his face to darken to a similar color of a tomato did that mean she had seen him naked?

The past few days had been awkward Obito still didn't fully trust them, a feeling which was mirrored by Suki meanwhile the Old Hag as Obito had taken to calling her was asleep most of the time. He had also come to the conclusion that she was a horrible mother, Suki cooked most of the meals by herself and took care of the house. He wasn't allowed to go outside unless he had supervision 'One war is still going on, two we can't have you finding any of your buddies and bringing them back, and three we can't have running off and getting injured again.' He was now able to do all motions that one went through in a civilian day to day life. At first he thought that she was Suki's grandmother but after Suki called her mother a few times he choose to believe that it was her mother.

It was late and Obito was going downstairs to get a glass of water, he had mapped out the whole house already it was two floors the top floor consisted of two bedrooms and a small bathroom the bottom floor was just a kitchen that was also held a dining room set overall it was a small house. Finishing his glass of water he was about to start up the stairs when a loud noise coming from above him for what he guessed was the master bedroom. Putting down the glass he crept upstairs, reaching the top floor he put his eye to the crack between the door and the frame, a grim scene met his eyes.

"SASUKE SAKURA KAKASHI!" The mother was screaming, tears running from her eyes trying to get out of bed but she was held down by her child and a huge what appeared to be fox. Rusted orange fur coated its body the tips of both its tail and ears were white. It was much larger than a normal fox, perhaps the size of a small horse and yet it still appeared to be struggling to hold her down. Obito could see the desperation in her eyes as she tried to get to the names she called.

"ENOUGH NARUTO THEY ARE DEAD ALL OF THEM." The fox's voice projected finally it seemed to cut through the halutanation, clarity slowly dawned in the newly dubbed Naruto's eyes.

"Inari? Sakumo?" Sakumo, who names their female kid Sakumo. "Did I…" She trailed off almost not wanting to confirm what they both knew. The fox nodded and she broke down mummering "I'm sorry" over and over. It took awhile but eventually they were able calm her down and have her fall back asleep. Once Naruto fell asleep Obito crept away not wanting to see something so personal or to see a someone he thought as a threat be humanized. He tossed and turned trying to ignore the screams and eyes of a broken human.

The morning after and he had some time to organize his thoughts it was clear that she suffered from PTSD and depression. The inability to get out of bed, eyes glazing over, jumping at loud noises. He felt like an asshole but he tested by slamming a door once and she almost jumped out of her socks. He looked at Naruto and apologized and his hand slipped she merely smiled and nodded in understanding asking him not to do it again. Sakumo sent him a withering glare from her studying at the table which almost made him cower in fear. He called them by their real names in his head however, he knew saying it outloud would be asking for trouble as they had made it clear they were trying to hide.

Obito had wonder why and from whom? It might be that they had a bloodline and were hiding. Kumo was always searching for bloodlines to add. The whisker marks and animalistic tendencies were all Obito could identify on the surface along with the fox contract. Maybe Naruto commited a crime and was hiding from her nation. Naruto didn't seem to be the type though she just seemed too Obito couldn't explain it but he knew that wasn't the reason why. Brought back to the real world from his musings he noticed Naruto was still washing her hands, her skin was rubbed raw bleeding from scratch marks. He knew it wasn't water she was currently seeing walking up to her he turned the water off and started drying her hands. "It's all gone miss." Recognition dawned on her eyes and once again she broke down sinking to her knees her head buried in his shit murmuring 'I'm sorry' over and over.

Since that incident Sakumo had started treating him nicer, he had also made it his job to find as much as possible about the two of them, the first and only opportunity came when they left to go shopping. He decided he would poke around the bedroom seeing as that was really the only room he hadn't been in yet. Giving the door a slight nudge, wincing at the loud creaking noise as it swung open. This room probably held the most furniture with a king sized bed and three huge dressers. Walking over to the first one he opened the first drawer his jaw dropped at what he saw. It was undergarments for Sakumo based on the size of them. His face flaming in embarrassment he slammed it closed. Deciding that it might be better to check another one he went to the largest one that was right next to the bed, it was old, dark stained wood.

Reaching towards the handle his fingers just about to touch when a female voice cut through the silence "I wouldn't do that" his hand jerked back whipping around to see who spoke to him. "If you had touched that handle you would've lost your hand." Suddenly a figure materialized on the dresser 'Genjutsu' Obito realized. It was another fox this one with a dark brown fur covering her body. "After everything they've done for this is how you repay them." The tone was pure disappointment guilt painted Obito's face.

"I just wanted to more about them. They have done so much for me yet I don't even know the old hag's name." Realizing he said old hag he had a look of mortification.

Instead of anger the fox threw back her head and laughed, finally after the laugh subsided into giggles then nothing "Despite her looks she isn't that old and it's quite a touchy subject for her so I wouldn't bring it up unless you want a beating." Her eyes slightly narrowing "As for the not knowing much I'll you the basics as long as you don't tell her I told you. She was a shinobi not from any of the big five." Obito assumed she meant the main five. "Her village was destroyed by a missing-nin during the war. She was the only survivor." Seemingly done with talking the fox laid its head on its paws. Obito took it as a dismissal and started to leave the room just before he left the fox spoke one last time. "Her name is Naruto and if you attempt this again…." She trailed off Obito knowing he wouldn't be so lucky promised himself he wouldn't do it again.

Obito was suspicious, they were currently eating dinner which was much more grand than usual. Despite that whenever Naruto smiled it didn't reach her eyes, and Sakumo was tense as thought expecting something to burst out of the wall. Finally about halfway through dinner Obito had enough. "What's wrong with you two?!"

A sad smile crossed Naruto's face. "Well you've finally healed to a level where you can get back to your village. We've decided that it's time for you to go home."

Obito was shocked while he had thought about going home often but for some reason it was much more surreal. "Can you come with me?" He blurted out without thinking "I'm sure the Hokage would be willing to let you in."

Naruto shook her head "I'm an unknown the Hokage wouldn't just let me in, they would at least do a complete interrogation and most likely a mind walk. I refuse to have my daughter go through either one of those as well as myself. Plus I am a trained shinobi which would be another red light. They would most likely kill us rather than let us in. I'm sorry." Running her hand through a few hand signs to quickly she ended in ram "Seal" Suddenly Obito's vision went black and his head started spinning "You won't remember any of this, it was nice having you with us." The last thing he saw was Naruto's tears.

Obito opened his eyes he was in the hospital, he remembered everything he was brought back then detained just as a safeguard in case he was a clone or some technique. While Tsunade did a full check up she had found an odd chakra signature eminating from his left leg, if it had been any other healer they would've missed it. It was a memory seal carved into his bones, Jiraiya had dispeled it then Inochi, the Hokage and Obito went through the newly revealed memories. "Well that was interesting." He tilted his head to the right Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage was the one who had spoken.

"She sure was an interesting character." This tilting his head to the other side he saw Inoichi Yamanaka head of the Yamanaka clan. "She didn't appear to have any ill intent towards us I'll do a psychological profile on her and give it to you in the next few days." With that he left the room.

Obito started twiddling his thumbs nervously not sure what to say to his leader. "I'm glad you're alive." The Hokage broke the silence. "Your team took your death quite hard, I won't keep them from you any longer." With that he stood up to leave before he could reach the door Obito found his voice.

"Wait would it be possible for her to come to the Leaf?" Obito knew she meant no harm to them. "Please you could get a possible bloodline and a healer and and" He just had to convince the Hokage he couldn't bear to think of them being killed. It wouldn't be fair to kill them for saving him.

"I don't think you have to worry about it Obito however saving one of our own means she isn't a threat to us. Also if you wouldn't mind keeping this underwraps for a few days." With that he left the room. Obito could hear muffled voices on the other side. Suddenly the door burst open and his team entered the room.

"Obito it's really you!" A female voice said as she barreled into him. Despite not being able to see the speaker he could recognize that voice anywhere. Rin, he wrapped his arms around her listening to her muffled sobs. God he missed her to have her in his arms the last time he had saw her, she was under a genjutsu and being used against him and Kakashi. He wrapped his arms tighter around her making sure she was real just like she was doing to him. A cough broke the moment suddenly they realized the position they were in splitting apart faces red they looked at the newcomers. Bakashi and Minato both stood in the doorway trying to hide the smirks that adorned both of their faces.

Minato was about to take a seat when Kakashi dashed forward and started hitting Obito not too hard but hard enough. He got about five hits in before he was restrained by Minato "We thought you were dead you idiot, what were you doing? Having a vacation while your teammates suffered?!" Tears were flowing down his face, well the side that wasn't covered by his hai-ate. Minato gently ushered the boy the out once Minato came back he sat down.

"Sorry about that he took your death really hard." Upon seeing his disbelieving look Minato continued "He took your habit of being late to the extreme, two hours at the least and his excuses were as bad as yours. He spent most of his time at the memorial stone, it didn't matter what was happening."

Before he could continue Rin spoke up "Obito what happened to your eye?"

Obito frowned a bit "I had you give it to Kakashi remember?" Did she forget? It seemed unlikely given how the mission ended. Instead of answering she pulled a mirror out of somewhere and showed him is reflection. His eye was there but it wasn't his he recognized that shade of blue anywhere. It was Naruto's he had noticed that hair always covered one of her eyes but hadn't put too much thought to it. It hadn't been there before the mindwalk. Why would she give him her eye seeing the confusion on his face Minato knew that this might be a good time a good time to leaving and let Obito go over this information he clearly didn't know about. Ushering Rin out of the door after saying their goodbyes.

Sarutobi was tired, the Third Shinobi war was just finished and there were already calls for him to step down. Many were unhappy at the peace treaty he had struck with the Iwa and Kumo, they called him soft. He rather be called soft than continue what was now a pointless war, but with this came a whole 'nother headache. Choosing the next Hokage he had narrowed it down to two candidates well there were three but thinking about the third one made his heart hurt. Where did he go wrong with Orochimaru? He had received a package just after the war was won containing graphic detailed pictures and information regarding experiments that were unauthorized. gruesome and the pictures were rather graphic. The question was why, it was clear they didn't want Orochimaru becoming Hokage? He hadn't even publicly mentioned he was stepping down much less who the possible options were. They could've had a bias against him which didn't narrow down the possible suspects so he went for the other reason. They wanted one of the other two to become Hokage but looking through the others' history he couldn't find any flaws. Pictures of both Minato Namikaze and Dan Kato sat on his desk. Both of them had done great things for the Leaf neither having any black marks on their record and being in relationships with equally strong and loyal kunoichi. He also strongly suspected this was Naruto's doing but he had no proof.

It was giving him a headache thinking about it all, what he needed right now was a distraction. The loud knocking on his door gave him hope, giving a quick call of enter and one of his students entered, Jiraiya the Toad Sage. "It's time for the meeting teach' " That's right there was a meeting about the woman in question in ten minutes. Heading down to the council chambers he opened the door and everyone he had asked for was already there: Tsunade Senju, Dan Kato, Sakumo Hatake, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara and Minato Namikaze.

Sitting down exhaling a puff of smoke from his trusted pipe he motioned for his student to pass around the folders he had prepared earlier that day. Once everyone had the folders the shuffling of papers signified that they were opened and reading the contents. About five minutes passed before the shuffling had stopped. "This report is everything we have on U000021 who is now being identified as Naruto." It was painfully small for someone who they had been trying to find for six years. Ninety percent of the information was from Obito and the memories they had unsealed two days ago.

"Before we continue I would like to announce some important news." Everyone looked at the Hokage "In two weeks I will be announcing my successor. I would've announced them this week but because of the information presented against Orochimaru we will have to do a through vetting of the two remaining options Minato and Dan you will report to the TI office latter " It was a blunt way of telling them who he was considering for the next Kage while this should've been cause for celebration everyone in the room could sense the seriousness of the current situation. "Naruto's motives are unknown, if she has helped anyone else in unknown. Right now we have a few options: ignore her, invite her to join the Leaf or.." He hesitated "kill her." He ignored some of the shouts that came from a few of the members. "She has known about numerous highly classified missions has evaded all of our attempts to gather any information on her. What if she used this against us, she is the scariest opponent because we know nothing about her but she appears to know everything about us."

"So what all she has done is help us." Tsunade yelled.

"Yeah but why only these times why not other times? Like the Kimoji ambush? We lost a lot of good people that day." Shikaku fired back, silence was the response.

"We should at least reach out to her." Minato cut in before Tsunade's legendary temper made itself known. "She hasn't done anything against us that we know of. So far he has saved my student and has given him her eye. We were able to identify that her chakra was the same as the person who saved Dan as well as the person who saved Sakumo's comrades. She has done too much just to write her off."

"I agree however the problem remains getting her trust and integrating her back into a village. It's clear she doesn't trust anyone save her summons and child. We also don't have any precedent for this kind of situation. I would recommend us doing a mind search on her before we let here in but given her veniment denial of that never happening we can rule that out. Any shinobi with a severe case of PTSD is also a danger to themselves and anyone around them. I would recommend her being housed farther off the village maybe in a clan compound." Inoichi said.

"Let's look at the pros: we could get a new bloodline in our village, a new summon, a sealer, a healer. The cons: we don't know how strong she is, she doesn't seem the most stable, we don't know where we came from." Jiraiya said.

"I would be willing to take her in, the Senju compound is far enough from the village and both me and Dan are strong enough to handle her." Tsunade could remember the day this 'Naruto' saved her Dan. It was the Second Shinobi war the day before she just lost her brother Nawaki to an explosive note in an ambush. Dan was bleeding out as she desperately pumped healing chakra into him trying to close the gaping wound that was desecrating his chest. Dan had just said he didn't want to die when a soft voice asked if she could try to heal him. Orochimaru whirled around Kusanagi drawn wondering how someone had sneaked up on him Tsunade lifted her head to look at the new arrival. Her figure was cloaked hood shadowing her face. The only defining feature was her stomach which protruded out showing she was heavily pregnant.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed 'Who are you?' her response of no one didn't help his nerves he was tensing his muscles preparing to lash out when Tsunade asked in a desperate tone of voice if she could heal him. The figure merely nodded in confirmation 'let here through' Tsunade spoke, Orochimaru could see the hope in her eyes and couldn't find it in himself to deny her. Merely looking away Tsunade saw that as a sigh of his standing down. Motioning for the mysterious woman to come help the woman came to her lovers side and put her hand right over the wound. Suddenly a burst of chakra so dense appear so strong Tsunade hadn't thought it was possible to concentrate chakra so densely. You could see the the muscles knitting back together the wound fading until not even a scar remained just normal colored skin. Just as Tsunade turned to stare at the figure who saved the love of her life. The figure kneeled of coughing out an alarming amount of blood. Looking back she's not surprised that such a potent jutsu had a large toll on the user. She tried to help the woman who waved of her concerns at suddenly vanished without a trace.

Not long after Dan and Tsunade married each other and not long after the Second War ended they had their first child name Nawaki in memory of her brother. Since then she has sworn to find this woman and profusely thank her. This would be a great chance to help and she would refuse anything that would sentence Naruto to death.

"You have a child Tsunade think of his safety." Hiruzen tried to reason with her, while having the Senju clan heir being important to Konoha's future he didn't want one of his students hurt. He knew that if the child died she would be devastated. Maybe Naruto saving Dan has made her blind to the threats this person posed. But he could see in her eyes the stubborn determination that meant she wouldn't stand down. Sighing in resignation he spoke "Fine let's do a preliminary vote, who thinks we should kill her?" No one raised their hands "Those who think we should leave her alone?" Once again no raised their hands. "All in favor of trying to recruit her to the Hidden Leaf?" All the hands in the room were now raised up. Hiruzen saw that there was no changing any of their minds. A small smile appeared on his face, while he had his doubts he was proud of their decision it was what made them different from all the other Hidden Villages. "Okay so now that we are in unanimous agreement what should how should we reach out to her?"

"I suggest one person go, her profile suggests that if we sent anymore she would assume they are their there to kill her. At the same time we need someone strong enough to be able to defend themselves should she attempt to lash out. We are at an advantage right now because she doesn't know that we know of her existence. We also still need to find her and avoid her information network." Shikaku as always had a solid plan pointing out everything that needed to be done.

"Then the best candidate for the job would be me." While Hiruzen knew that Jiraiya was the best person for the job he hadn't wanted to order him to. Anything regarding Naruto needed to be be done voluntarily he refused to send anymore shinobi to their possible deaths before he nominated the next Hokage. "Agreed but I don't want to you taking any unnecessary risks."

"Now that we have agreed on the direction that we are going in and who is going we need to find where she is." This was the hardest task that they would face as for years they had been searching for her and had found no leads on her.

"We now have a starting point though, before we had nothing. Now we know she lives in a shanty town, which eliminates any major villages. Obito was lost on the Iwa and Hidden Grass border. He was found on in the Hidden leaf with the closest border being the Hidden Waterfall village. There are ten major shanties within the borders of the Hidden Waterfall and five in the Leaf close to the border." Fifthteen seems like a small amount but some of them were sprawling and full of gangs. Trust ran thin in those places and finding one person would be like finding a needle in a haystack. But Jiraiya's network wasn't one the best for nothing and knowing where to look made a world of difference. He laid out a map of the area and started making dots marking the areas of interest."

"Give or take how long do you think it will take you to find her?" Minato spoke up for the first time.

"Awww worried for me my precious student?" A cheeky grin make itself appear on the Minato's teachers face. The slight blush on his students face made him get serious while Minato was a mother hen even more so since the Kannabi Bridge he knew when things could get dicey.

"I don't know but trust me I'll be fine." With that he left before anyone could make their objections known.

Two months into his search and he had cleared ten of the fifteen areas all five in the Land of Fire and Five of the smallest ones in Waterfall. He was now heading to the brothel in Kera the first big Shanty in the Land of Waterfall. And no it wasn't for pleasure his informant was there and if he had some fun with her, well who could blame him. Slipping passed the gang members that were acting as guards, didn't need to tip anyone off. Making his way through the dank alleyways and damp corridors. He turned and faced his destination, it was nicer than the buildings surrounding it which wasn't saying much, windows were all closed and locked, door left slightly open luring people in to taste its forbidden fruit. He slipped around to the back door and slid inside. The smell of incense assaulted his nose. Looking around he saw his contact resting in one of the booths, exotic dark skin, her breast barely covered, deep red eyes glazed over in deep thought, mint green hair running to her shoulders and yes the carpet matched the drapes, the table was concealing her luscious legs, long and muscular.

Sitting down across from her he waited for her to realize he was there. It only took about two minutes for he to return the land of the living. "Hey long time no master Jiraiya." As usual her voice had a husky quality he couldn't tell if it was artificial or she just spoke like that naturally.

"Yeah it has, did you get my mail?" He was referring to the manila folder that had information on the target.

"Yeah and I think I found her." Surprise appeared on his face while he did expect to find her at some point it was still unexpected he wouldn't have been surprised if it was the last one. She pulled some papers out of basically thin air and handed it to him. It was a blonde woman with green eyes, nothing stood out about her, while blonde wasn't the most common hair color there were still a fair amount of them. Lifting the first page up he saw a picture of a child matching the description of the Naruto's of child minus the whisker marks but those could be covered easily by makeup or a genjutsu. It said she had been there for about five years or at least that's when she was first noticed, in these kind of places you could live your whole life and not be seen. They hadn't found her exact home location but they had a general estimate of where she resided. She lived in the darker half of the city run by the gangs. Well it wasn't much be you have to start somewhere.

It had been two days of painfully slow searching, avoiding gangs and keeping his senses stretched to the limits to see if he could sense any of Naruto's spies or summons. He hadn't gotten any sleep as he knew one slip up could alert her. He wasn't getting anywhere fast enough maybe it was running on two days with no sleep or the two months of fruitless searching or the fact that he was so close. He decided to do something drastic retreating to the "safer" half he ran through some hand signs and whispered summoning jutsu. Two toads appeared in front of him both of much, much smaller than his usual summons and older. There were the head of the Toad clan simply called Ma and Pa. "Jiraiya boy what did ya call us here?" Looking around at the rundown city Pa asked a valid question usually there just summoned for advice this looked like it could be a combat situation.

"I need you to help me with get into Sage mode. I'm looking for someone and I'm starting to to think I'll only be able to find them in any timely manner if you guys help me." That and he was getting tired damnit.

Ma and Pa sent each other a indecipherable look then turned to face him "What do we need to know about her." After Jiraiya explained everything that they had on her they prepared to go into Sage mode hopping up each of Jiraiya shoulders they all started to meditate. Jiraiya could feel the nature energy seeping into his chakra network his features started shifting. He could feel Ma and Pa's Chakra system becoming one with his own regulating the nature chakra preventing him from turning to stone. Each person's life force was like a flame. Usually he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of life but since this was lacking the abundance of vegetation that he was used to it was much more bearable. Expanding his senses he found something. A complete void, no signs of life. Deep in the heart of the city. This time moving through the city was easy, left avoiding the patrol, up over the sentries. Until finally he came upon it ironically enough there was a tree there like Obito said the only one in the whole town.

"Alright Ma, Pa I'll take it from here." Instead of the poofing sound he expected they hopped on the ground and looked at him expectantly.

"We aren't leaving you boy we'll stay back and watch just in case." Jiraiya recognized that tone and the look in their eyes, they weren't backing down. Nodding his head in resignation he hopped down from the roof and landed on the mucky cobblestone floor. He figured a henge would be a bad idea simply because he wanted to show he meant no harm be as upfront as possible. Taking a deep breath he walked up to the rickety house, raising his hand and rapped his knuckles on the door. He couldn't feel anything beyond the door.

The door slowly opened and a blue eye peaked from behind the door, eyes widening in recognition trying to slam the door closed. Only to stay open Jiraiya had managed to sneak his foot into the door. "I just want to talk." He was calm it was important to stay that way when dealing someone as unstable as Naruto it was important to stay calm.

"Go away." Concise, voice wavering, he could see the fear in her eyes.

"Please I don't want to hurt you I just wanna talk." The door creaked open, an unspoken invitation. She stepped back as he stepped forward as soon as he passed the threshold a flare of chakra alerted him to the fact that he may have just walked into a trap. He assumed it was a barrier seal preventing him from leaving, if he had time he would love to look at it but right now he was a little preoccupied as Naruto lunged at him, kunai in hand. Drawing his own he deflected hers a clang sound resonated throughout the room. Stepping back she flung a group of shuriken at him most of them hit but all deflected due to the thin chainmail he was grateful for putting on before he started searching. He was in a bind, he didn't want to attack her but at the same time he didn't really want to die today.

It was difficult dodging in a small house, thank goodness Naruto wasn't using any chakra based from some reason. Still Naruto's taijutsu was definitely damaging the foundation. "Mom?" Both Jiraiya and Naruto turned to the speaker, Sakumo was standing at the stairway.

"RUN SAKUMO!" Fear shown in Naruto's eyes, the house was shaking foundation beams creaking from the strain. In desperation Naruto lunged forward wind chakra bleeding from hands swiping at this throat only Jiraiya substituted with a chair and she sliced through the chair and a wooden support beam. That was all the house could take, the distinct sound of wood snapping filled the room as the house started crumbling down like a jenga tower. Jiraiya rushed to grab the child and jump through the roof shielding her with his body. They were a good distance from the house when the dust settled. He could make out the faint screams of Sakumo and moving of wood. The girl was wiggling like a little worm so Jiraiya let her go and she ran towards what was left of their lives.

He followed her slowing motioning for Ma and Pa to stay back just in case. Naruto was holding her child, shoulders shaking repeating her name over and over like a mantra. Right now it was only Sakumo in her world and with her presumed past he wouldn't be surprised. "Mama! Mama! That spikey head saved me." She pointed to him. Naruto looked up eyes still wary but a glimmer of trust was now in it.

He walked up to slowly to the duo putting down his weapons pouch as a sign of goodwill granted he had a few hidden in storage seals on his wrists. He stopped about five feet away "I just wanna talk."

He could see her mind whirling as possibilities played out finally her shoulders slumped in resignation and he cheered on the inside. "Fine but not here to many eyes and ears." He agreed their fight had caused a lot of ruckus, spies and gangs were probably converging on them as they spoke. He motioned for her to follow them as the took to the roofs Ma and Pa poofed back to the mountain where they were summoned from. Leading them to the brothel landing in front of the doorway he turned to face them. Naruto had an unimpressed look on her face that screamed 'Why are we taking my child in there?' He held the door open as unspoken invitation wordlessly she followed she clutching Sakumo. He lead her through the winding halls into his personal study which was hidden behind a bookshelf cliche but the look on Sakumo's face along with a whisper of awesome made it worth it.

After entering the room which definity wasn't meant for three Jiraiya turned to face the two.

 **Sorry for cliffhanger and review damn it!**

 **Night**


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